April 6

Deuteronomy 5

1And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.

2The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb.

3The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today.

4The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire,

5(I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of the fire, you did not go up the mountain;) saying,

6I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

7You are to have no other gods but me.

8You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the earth:

9You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;

10And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.

11You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord’s name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the Lord.

12Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God.

13On six days do all your work:

14But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter, or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange country who is living among you; so that your man-servant and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you.

15And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath day.

16Give honour to your father and your mother, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

17Do not put anyone to death without cause.

18Do not be false to the married relation.

19Do not take the property of another.

20Do not give false witness against your neighbour;

21Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour’s wife, or his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your neighbour’s.

22These words the Lord said to all of you together on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them to me.

23And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your chiefs came to me,

24And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power, and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice of God.

25Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us, and we will be burned up in this great fire.

26For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire, has been kept from death?

27Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it.

28Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.

29If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever!

30Now say to them, Go back to your tents.

31But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them for their heritage.

32Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the right hand or to the left.

33Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage.

Deuteronomy 6

1Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you are going:

2So that living in the fear of the Lord your God, you may keep all his laws and his orders, which I give you: you and your son and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and so that your life may be long.

3So give ear, O Israel, and take care to do this; so that it may be well for you, and you may be greatly increased, as the Lord the God of your fathers has given you his word, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4Give ear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:

5And the Lord your God is to be loved with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts;

7Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up.

8Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow;

9Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.

10And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and fair towns which were not of your building;

11And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full;

12Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

13Let the fear of the Lord your God be in your hearts, and be his servants, taking your oaths by his name.

14Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about you;

15For the Lord your God who is with you is a God who will not let his honour be given to another; or the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, causing your destruction from the face of the earth.

16Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah.

17Keep with care the orders of the Lord your God, and his rules and his laws which he has given you;

18And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in and take for your heritage that good land from which the Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers,

19To send out from before you all those who are against you.

20And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for these rules and laws and decisions which the Lord our God has given you?

21Then you will say to your son, We were servants under Pharaoh’s yoke in Egypt; and the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand:

22And the Lord did great signs and wonders against Egypt, and against Pharaoh and all his house, before our eyes:

23And he took us out from that place, guiding us here to give us this land, as he said in his oath to our fathers.

24And the Lord gave us orders to keep all these laws, in the fear of the Lord our God, so that it might be well for us for ever, and that he might keep us from death, as he has done to this day.

25And it will be our righteousness if we take care to keep all this order before the Lord our God as he has given it to us.

Job 6

1And Job made answer and said,

2If only my passion might be measured, and put into the scales against my trouble!

3For then its weight would be more than the sand of the seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled.

4For the arrows of the Ruler of all are present with me, and their poison goes deep into my spirit: his army of fears is put in order against me.

5Does the ass of the fields give out his voice when he has grass? or does the ox make sounds over his food?

6Will a man take food which has no taste without salt? or is there any taste in the soft substance of purslain?

7My soul has no desire for such things, they are as disease in my food.

8If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God would give me my desire!

9If only he would be pleased to put an end to me; and would let loose his hand, so that I might be cut off!

10So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of the Holy One.

11Have I strength to go on waiting, or have I any end to be looking forward to?

12Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh brass?

13I have no help in myself, and wisdom is completely gone from me.

14He whose heart is shut against his friend has given up the fear of the Ruler of all.

15My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end:

16Which are dark because of the ice, and the snow falling into them;

17Under the burning sun they are cut off, and come to nothing because of the heat.

18The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the waste and come to destruction.

19The camel-trains of Tema were searching with care, the bands of Sheba were waiting for them:

20They were put to shame because of their hope; they came and their hope was gone.

21So have you now become to me; you see my sad condition and are in fear.

22Did I say, Give me something? or, Make a payment for me out of your wealth?

23Or, Get me out of the power of my hater? or, Give money so that I may be free from the power of the cruel ones?

24Give me teaching and I will be quiet; and make me see my error.

25How pleasing are upright words! but what force is there in your arguments?

26My words may seem wrong to you, but the words of him who has no hope are for the wind.

27Truly, you are such as would give up the child of a dead man to his creditors, and would make a profit out of your friend.

28Now then, let your eyes be turned to me, for truly I will not say what is false to your face.

29Let your minds be changed, and do not have an evil opinion of me; yes, be changed, for my righteousness is still in me.

30Is there evil in my tongue? is not the cause of my trouble clear to me?

Matthew 27:1-31

1Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death.

2And they put cords on him and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate, the ruler.

3Then Judas, who was false to him, seeing that he was to be put to death, in his regret took back the thirty bits of silver to the chief priests and those in authority,

4Saying, I have done wrong in giving into your hands an upright man. But they said, What is that to us? it is your business.

5And he put down the silver in the Temple and went out, and put himself to death by hanging.

6And the chief priests took the silver and said, It is not right to put it in the Temple store for it is the price of blood.

7And they made a decision to get with the silver the potter’s field, as a place for the dead of other countries.

8For this cause that field was named, The field of blood, to this day.

9Then came true that which was said by Jeremiah the prophet, And they took the thirty bits of silver, the price of him who was valued by the children of Israel;

10And they gave them for the potter’s field, as I had word from the Lord.

11And Jesus was before the ruler, who put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say so.

12But when the chief priests and those in authority made statements against him, he gave no answer.

13Then says Pilate to him, Do you give no attention to what their witnesses say against you?

14And he gave him no answer, not even a word: so that the ruler was greatly surprised.

15Now at the feast it was the way for the ruler to let free to the people one prisoner, at their selection.

16And they had then an important prisoner, whose name was Barabbas.

17So when they came together, Pilate said to them, Whom will you have? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is named Christ?

18For he saw that for envy they had given him up.

19And while he was on the judge’s seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that upright man, for I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him.

20Now the chief priests and those in authority got the people to make request for Barabbas, and for Jesus to be put to death.

21But the ruler made answer and said to them, Which of the two is it your pleasure that I let go free? And they said, Barabbas.

22Pilate says to them, What, then, am I to do with Jesus, who is named Christ? They all say, Let him be put to death on the cross.

23And he said, Why, what evil has he done? But they gave loud cries, saying, To the cross with him!

24So when Pilate saw that he was able to do nothing, but that trouble was working up, he took water and, washing his hands before the people, said, The blood of this upright man is not on my hands: you are responsible.

25And all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children.

26Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross.

27Then the ruler’s armed men took Jesus into the open square, and got all their band together.

28And they took off his clothing, and put on him a red robe.

29And they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a rod in his right hand, and they went down on their knees before him, and made sport of him, saying, Long life to the King of the Jews.

30And they put shame on him, and gave him blows on the head with the rod.

31And when they had made sport of him, they took the robe off him, and put his clothing on him, and took him away to put him on the cross.